Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1063–1065, 2010
doi:10.1093/schbul/sbp086
Advance Access publication on August 28, 2009
The second hallucination occurred 2 weeks later when I road, I heard a voice say, ‘‘This means I will carry your
was hitchhiking back to my college town in a state of ag- cross.’’ My right forefinger touched my left wrist, as if
itation. The trip back, which took a day and a half, was marking where a nail would go in. I thought I was receiv-
filled with minor hallucinations and odd experiences. Re- ing a message teaching me sign language.
ality seemed in flux around me and I decided that I would A couple weeks after returning to the college town, I
try to find Jesus to help me. I began to talk in code to my attended a meeting of a self-help group. I had become
rides, hoping that Jesus would respond to my coded pray- very nervous in the interim since I was constantly won-
ers. I was traveling toward a highway numbered 33, and dering, ‘‘If I’m not going to heaven, where am I going?’’
Christian community. The Christians in the community the intensity and the trauma associated with the literal
were actively hostile to me and my family, citing our reli- interpretation of the symbolic hallucinations, the mes-
gious and liberal political beliefs. It was commonly said by sage of the story helped alter my life course for the better.
those in my community that I was going to hell because I As time went on, I moved increasingly away from the peer
‘‘didn’t accept Jesus as my savior’’ and because of my fam- groups that were perpetuating my dysfunction and into
ily’s acceptance of evolution, political liberalism, and other peer groups that reinforced a new, positive personality.
beliefs that rejected cultural traditions that the community This included years during which the group of older indi-
associated with Christian teachings. The appearance of viduals were my closest confidants and role models and